After a year when the battle for the top of the Liberty was very close, RPI has made a huge step in the first two games of the season.
The Engineers beat rivals Albany 39-0 two weeks ago and then beat a tough SUNY Oswego side 68-5.
This improvement is down to a number of factors. One of those is that Ray Santiago is back on the field for RPI. Santiago emerged as a major talent this past year and then participated in the MLR Rising camp, where he performed very well. As a result, Santiago was drafted in the 1st Round of the Major League Rugby draft, with Old Glory DC taking him #12 overall.
Santiago, who learned his rugby at RPI and started as a lock, is now the team’s No. 8 and is scoring three tries a game.
But Santiago isn’t the whole team by any stretch.
“We’ve got a couple of dynamic and athletic forwards and backs,” Santiago told GRR. “These guys have really trained over the summer and developed their rugby IQ, and I think we have a promising season ahead of us.”
More than that, too, it’s numbers.
“We have 90 athletes between the men’s and women’s team,” said RPI Director of Rugby Dave Gardell. “For the men’s team we’re getting 45 to 50 at practice. We have rookies and we’re able to retain them. We have depth. What’s helped is that we’ve been able to get good B-side games.”
With the numbers strong at training and the leading players with talent, RPI is able to challenge all of their players, playing 15-on-15 in practices, and thus keep the players engaged, interested, and learning.
